


the validity of soulmates

by xoxoHoran



Category: Superstore (TV)
Genre: Alternative Universe - Soulmarks, Alternative Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Mentions of Bo & Cheyenne, Mentions of Dina Fox & Garrett McNeill, Mentions of Glenn & Jerusha Sturgis, mostly just fluff, sometime in season two
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:01:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24038575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xoxoHoran/pseuds/xoxoHoran
Summary: “Because I know you, Cheyenne, if I told you, then you would just spiral out of control until you found at least five different strangers that could be my soulmate.”“I would no- Jonah, tell Amy that she needs to tell me about her soulmark, because Harmonica has been-”“Cheyenne, I heard you the first time and I, for one, think it would be great if Amy would indulge you and tell you what it says.”AU where soul marks represent the first words your soulmate says to you.
Relationships: Amy Dubanowski & Dina Fox, Amy Dubanowski/Jonah Simms, Cheyenne Lee & Amy Dubanowski, Dina Fox/Garrett McNeill
Comments: 2
Kudos: 96





	the validity of soulmates

**Author's Note:**

> Since the beginning of this quarantine, I have watched an embarrassing four complete television series, one of which was Superstore. I loved the first season and aspects of the second, but I'm not a huge Adam fan and I generally love Soulmate AU, so I thought I should write my own!
> 
> This takes place sometime in the second season and, as a premise, you should know that Amy and Adam are no longer together! Also, this is my first story of Archive Of Our Own, so please don't judge me too critically! Additionally, I haven't quite mastered the voice yet, so I'm sorry if it's terrible!

Honestly, she thinks the soulmate system is weird and miscalculated: it’s hard to believe that “the universe” selects everyone’s perfect match (the voice in her head questions whether she’s bitter because Adam isn’t her soulmate or because she found out after she had married him and was pregnant with Emma). Her inner monologue suggests it’s the second; though, as time has progressed, it’s become more than obvious to her that she and Adam were never meant to be together. 

Dina seems to agree with her beliefs about the soulmate system (it’s one of the  _ only  _ things they agree on), but that doesn’t stop the louder woman from questioning what her tattoo says that is so embarrassing that she hasn’t already shared it with the group. There is a mandatory space on the application where Cloud Nine inquires about every new hire’s soulmark (as if they’re looking to make “love connections” in the store), but Amy had been too young to have a soul mark when she started at the store and, no matter how many times Dina insisted she needed to update her file, she continuously avoided sharing her soul mark with anyone.

“Mine says something about not being afraid to tackle someone,” Dina admits, as if it will suddenly make Amy want to share (it doesn’t). Both women know that Cheyenne’s is something a little off-kilter (not unlike Bo) and that she and Bo are soulmates (Amy double-checked on the database of soulmates, desperately trying to find different results for her friend’s sake). Garrett claims that he doesn’t have a mark and Jonah, though optimistic about most things, seems to be a little more pessimistic about this specific issue: Dina told her that he left the space blank on his application and said something about how soulmates didn’t matter (which had, inevitably, given Dina a false sense of hope that maybe  _ they _ were soulmates). 

“First of all, you’ve mentioned that before, and I still don’t understand how that would come up in casual conversation,” Amy says as the duo makes their way towards the break room, each carrying a clipboard and walking at a pace that Dina has set (something a little faster than Amy would have preferred). “Also, how could you think that you and Jonah were soulmates if he didn’t mention the whole tackling thing?”

“I guess I just wanted it to be wrong,” Dina mumbles as they make their way inside the communal space, where Garrett and Jonah are already huddled together, laughing about some video Garrett is playing on his phone. Amy shoots her quasi-friend a sympathetic look, understanding how hard her unrequited crush on Jonah had been (especially after learning that Jonah  _ did not  _ share the same feelings as her  _ after _ she stepped down from her position as assistant manager). Admittedly, Amy has had multiple conversations revolving around Jonah with Dina: when Jonah first arrived and they became fast friends, Dina was constantly asking if he had mentioned her (she sometimes lied and said that he did), and after Jonah had “pulled the rug out from underneath” her, Amy found herself assuring Dina that Jonah was nothing  _ too  _ special and that workplace relationships were always more complicated than they needed to be (she actually  _ wasn’t  _ lying about that one).

“Hey, at least you don’t have Matteo’s soul mark,” Amy nudges her friend as they make their way to a table that is a fair distance away from their friends so that they can have a slight amount of privacy. Matteo, ever the over-sharer and people pleaser, had shared his soul mark with the group within his first week of working at Cloud Nine, though everyone had insisted he didn’t need to (it was a little lower on his hip than anyone needed to see). 

Matteo’s mark, which read, “Nice lab coat, you work in the… lab? Do you guys have a lab here?” made approximately no sense, since Matteo had evidently never worn a lab coat or worked in any sort of lab (apparently he avoided the former, because they weren’t  _ fashionable _ and the latter, because he simply didn’t want to be a test guinea pig). Cheyenne had seemed startled and amazed by the fact that Matteo had a small piece of the future on his body, while Garrett mumbled something about his soulmate sounding a little dumb and needing to pull his pants up before he filed sexual harassment charges.

“Ugh, you are right,” Dina mumbles as they both dramatically shudder, thinking about what type of weird situation would find their friend wearing some sort of “lab-themed apparel.”

* * *

“Why won’t you just tell me? Harmonica has been begging me to tell her and I feel like I’m letting her down by not sharing it with her, so I need you to share it with me,” Cheyenne pleads after cornering her behind the jewelry counter. Behind her friend, Amy hears Jonah scoff slightly, reminding her of his distaste of the soulmate system, before rolling her eyes at her best friend (the fact that Cheyenne is her best friend is something that sometimes keeps her awake at night, wondering how a highschooler was her closest confidant).

“Because I know you, Cheyenne, if I told you, then you would just spiral out of control until you found at least five different strangers that  _ could be _ my soulmate,” Amy replies, squirting a small amount of glass cleaner on the already clean casing in front of her, desperate to end this conversation.

“I would no- Jonah, tell Amy that she needs to tell me about her soul mark, because Harmonica has been-”

“Cheyenne, I heard you the first time and I, for one, think it would be great if Amy would indulge you and tell you what it says,” Jonah says with a slight smirk, meeting Amy’s defiant glare with a look of amusement. “Come on Aims, you don’t want to be the reason that Harmonica grows up hating Cheyenne, now do you?”

Before Amy can even comment about how wrong it was for him to mention the possibility, Cheyenne has already begun hyperventilating about the idea that her baby may one day hate her, effectively changing the topic from Amy’s unknown soulmate to the fact that, though Cheyenne is clearly the disciplinary figure in her relationship with Bo, any child would be lucky to have her as a mother.

* * *

Glenn stops her as she’s making her way toward the breakroom to clock out and leave: a smile is stretched happily across his face and she almost feels a little bad when she refuses to tell him what her soul mark says, it’s like telling a child that they are unable to have something they’ve been endlessly begging for. 

“Jerusha and I were just hoping that you and your soulmate would join us for dinner sometime,” Glenn says, attempting (and failing) to sound casual as he continuously sneaks glances in her direction, clearly trying to gauge her reaction. Amy understands that Glenn is honestly just doing what he feels God would want him to do, but she wishes people would stop asking about the damn words that showed up on her body one day when she was 19 and pregnant.

“Oh Glen, I’m sorry, but I actually don’t know who my soulmate is,” Amy says honestly, though she knows that even if she were to find him (or her, she guesses), she would still attempt to make up some sort of excuse to get out of an awkward dinner with Glenn and Jerusha. While Jerusha is nice enough, she is also a little weird and sometimes freaks Amy out: she would  _ never _ force anyone, let alone her soulmate, to sit through an awkward dinner with Glenn and Jerusha Sturgis, as they discussed topics that even she doesn’t understand a majority of the time.

“Well, have you checked the database? I bet you’re listed on it, let’s just go to my office and-”

“Glenn, my soul mark is so generic that I could have said it to any number of people,” Amy says quickly, another thing that she knows is true but would have easily lied about. Truthfully, she had checked in between checking to see if Bo and Cheyenne were a match and looking at all of her family’s tattoos (her brother’s said something about a vision center, which she had found weird, but dismissed because Eric was generally a pretty weird guy). “Besides, my soulmate isn’t listed on my profile.”

The soulmate database reported each person’s soul mark the second it appeared, but it required a certain amount of money to access the website and only paired together soulmates who had learned of their specific status. It was complicated and, more than once, Amy had used it as evidence in her case against the soulmate system (“Are computers just listening to us? That has to be an invasion of privacy.”). 

“Oh, well you’re still welcome to-”

“Actually Glenn, I am sorry, but it’s my night with Emma and we were planning to spend the night in, catching up on some of our favorite shows.” Amy quickly cuts off her boss as she makes her way quickly towards the time clock, not wanting to end up being roped into  _ another _ weird meal with just Glenn and Jerusha (twice was really more than enough).

* * *

“Okay Aims, today I’ve decided that I should officially help you find your soulmate! You and Adam are officially divorced, sorry about that by the way, and, since I am your best friend and always down for a good adventure, I think it’s time for us to make some magic happen!” Jonah exclaims as he makes his way into the breakroom at the start of his shift, where Amy is already sitting at one of the tables, mindlessly entering names into the soulmate database to read people’s embarrassing soul marks. It’s been a successful three months of dodging everyone’s questions and her divorce with Adam was finalized a month ago (though she only told a select few people - Jonah, when they were working in the stockroom a couple of weeks ago), and she had been hoping that this whole soul mark situation would have blown over completely.

“I thought you didn’t believe in the soul mark system and that’s why you refused to disclose what yours said on your application?” Amy questions, tearing her gaze away from her phone to look at her friend, who seems slightly stunned that she knows this fact about him. Admittedly, she has wondered what his soul mark says and has considered typing his name into the database, but she had felt that would be an intrusion of privacy: if Jonah wanted to share his with her, he could do it in his own time.

“How do you- I thought Dina wasn’t supposed to- Nevermind. Yes, I didn’t disclose my soul mark on the application because I’m not the firmest believer of the soul mark system, but maybe we should try to find ours, anyways,” Jonah says with a shrug and a slight smile, taking a seat beside Amy before people began filing into the room for Glenn’s mandatory morning meeting.

“This seems like a bad idea; we both don’t believe in the system, maybe we should be trying to help other people find theirs, instead? Like Garrett or Dina?” Amy suggests and Jonah smiles slightly at the suggestion, as if he knows something she doesn’t (which bothers her more than she’d like to admit).

“Aims, I think that they’re soulmates,” he whispers softly, leaning toward her so that no one else can hear him, as if it’s a deep dark secret about his dangerous past or if he’s confessing an addiction to hard drugs. “I saw Garrett’s tattoo once and it sounded like something Dina would say.”

Amy takes a moment to process the suggestion that two of her friends and co-workers are potentially soulmates, before admitting that it seems somewhat plausible. Perhaps Dina had said something about Garret’s disability during his interview, and he felt the need to assure her that he could tackle anyone, despite the fact that he was in a wheelchair. The more she thinks about it, the more she starts wondering if either of them is aware of their soulmate status and if that’s why Garrett doesn’t want everyone knowing what his mark says.

“That actually makes a lot of sense,” Amy mumbles, still digesting the new information. Dina is standing in the front of the break room beside Glenn, back in her position as Assistant Manager after the whole strike-situation, while Garrett is beside Mateo and Cheyenne, listening to the latest store gossip. She and Jonah both sneak glances between the two of them, calculating if they should inform their friends about their new-found ‘conspiracy theory’ or if they should simply let them learn on their own.

“Which brings us back to you: let’s find you a soulmate,” Jonah is smiling one of his brighter smiles that always elicits a smile in return, as Amy rolls her eyes slightly. His enthusiasm, though strangely pointed, is always a little appreciated, and Amy decides that maybe finding her soulmate wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, though she silently wonders if Jonah is going to suggest they dress in trench coats and fedoras to find her match.

“Only if you show me your soul mark,” She mumbles, eyes trained on the front of the room as Dina begins another one of the Cloud Nine conduct videos, unable to stop thinking about the fact that the man who voiced over the cloud committed suicide (thanks for that, Garrett).

“Maybe after you show me yours.”

* * *

Glenn, as someone who can hardly let sleeping dogs lay and as someone who is notably terrible with money, purchases a subscription to the database and instantly searches for her, so that he can eavesdrop into her conversations, with hopes that he’ll hear someone say the magic phrase. When Amy reminds him that following her around all day would be a waste of time and make him look a little like a stalker, he makes a schedule with Dina, Cheyenne, and Matteo, so that they can all linger around her at specific time increments and listen for the magic words (Dina is more than okay with it, considering it answers the long-standing question she had about Amy’s soul mark, and the other two go along with it because it means getting out of doing hard work and instead, spending the day socializing). 

Though she insists that she’s probably already heard the words spoken to her no less than twenty times, she still finds herself being tailed by her fellow co-workers, always under the scrutiny of at least one of them (Dina is  _ everywhere _ ).

“You seem a little on edge,” Jonah comments as he makes his way into the store, stopping briefly to converse with her before making his way into the break room. He feels as if someone is watching him, and when he turns to deduce why, Dina quickly looks toward the electronic case, immersing herself in conversation with a customer while still stealing glances in their direction. “Oh God, are they back on the whole soul mark thing?”

“Glenn bought a subscription to the database and found out what my soul mark is, so he has Dina, Matteo, and Cheyenne lingering near me with hopes that they’ll hear the magic words,” Amy sighs as she spots Matteo watching her intently from behind a rack of clothes he’s been straightening for the last five minutes. “Just wait, I’m sure he’ll look you up next.”

“Well, since everyone else knows what your soul mark says, aren’t you going to share it with me?” Jonah asks with a slight grin, eyes twinkling with amusement while Amy scans the area around her, making weird eye contact with Dina, before reverting her gaze back towards Jonah.

“No way, I’m hoping that everyone gets bored waiting around and eventually gives up,” Amy states confidently, knowing that Dina will be more persistent and interested than the other two, while also acknowledging the fact that, at some point, she makes at least two calls to her birds every shift, in which she can completely shirk her. “Mine is so basic that I’m sure someone has already told me it before and I just didn’t think anything of it.”

“It can’t be worse than mine,” Jonah scoffs, bringing his messenger bag up higher on his shoulder as he gestures toward the break room, as if suggesting they walk together. “My supposed soulmate could be anyone.”

“I’m sure that’s not true: maybe they’ll be fun and have traveled the world and be willing to share their adventurous stories with you! Oooh, or maybe they’re also into rock climbing and you guys could take a couples’ class! Or maybe-”

* * *

It’s later that night that Jonah finally musters up the courage to open the database on his phone, something he’s been dying to do since he met Amy. God, he had seemed like such an arrogant ass back then, but he had known from the second that he met her that there was something special about her. Something that drew him to her.

**Amy Sosa:** _ Oh wait, no no, let me help you with that _ .

He finds himself smiling slightly as he rubs his own tattoo, which he often conceals using women’s makeup and long-sleeved shirts.

_ Oh no, no, no, I’m fine _ .


End file.
